Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi

With a passion for art that is rivalled only by travel, Michael combines both of these in a journey to discover more about a Danish artist that has fascinated him for years. Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916) was a mysterious recluse of an Artist whose work had world-wide acclaim at the turn of the 19th century but whose intriguing painting style fell into oblivion after the First World War. Michael discovers how a meticulous painter with a relatively little body of work has gone from relative obscurity to a situation today where his paintings are much sought after and now fetch up to ?340,000 at auction, with private collectors in Europe, America and Japan.